Making Mars Volume 1, Page 3

(2) Day 7 0955 Initiating Package Retrieval

  He and Radius climbed out of the shelter, and Dirk rushed up the berm, scanning the landscape for the package. Happy to see a cloud of dust indicating the landing area not too far away, Dirk asked, “Radius, are you getting any location data?” Although he could pull up the display on the Book himself, he wanted to get a good bearing on the dust cloud before it dissipated in the Martian breeze.

  While waiting for Radius’ response, Dirk, keeping his eyes on the faint puff of dust that looked like a mini tornado fading away to the Northwest, started off at a fast walk.

  “Radius, do you have the package at about 030 degrees, 4 clicks?” he yelled back to Radius.

  “Yes, Dirk, that is about it. 033 at 3.7 kilometers,” Radius said.

  An hour and a half later, as he and Radius finally reached the package, his vague annoyance at having to race out to get the package (he had to get back for the next Crane arrival at 1500) became full-blown anger.

  “Radius,” he yelled angrily. “It’s a ‘diplomatic’ pouch!”

  “Crud,” said Dirk, as he picked up the pouch. These pouches were the worst of all packages to have to retrieve for two reasons. First, the shielding necessary to render them impervious to all forms of electromagnet snooping made them awkward to carry. Second, since no one except government officials knew what they contained, their weight was unrestricted which meant that they were often very heavy.

  In addition, the pouches were designed with only one large handle on the top. Back on Earth they were only carried for short distances – from a car to a building, or from a plane to a cart to a car. The deficiencies of the traditional form were not a major hindrance to diplomatic operations.

  But the design sure hindered Dirk’s operations.

  Radius interrupted his whining by facing away from the bag, grabbing the heaviest, handleless end and saying, “Let’s go.”

  Dirk sighed and picked up the handle. Radius led the way back toward the Crane Farm.

  Though annoying at times, Radius was stronger, faster and more versatile than a human. Now for example, he was comfortably walking forward with his arms spun around to the rear and his “hands” forming a wide stable platform on which the heaviest part of the diplomatic pouch was secured. Two humans would have had to walk sideways carrying the heavy bag, or use a fireman’s carry to lug it around. Although Dirk had complained about having to carry the awkward package, Radius was doing 80% of the work.

  “What do you think the bag contains?” Dirk asked Radius.

  “No idea,” said Radius. “I lack the data necessary to make an informed guess.”

  Annoyed by this classic robotic response, Dirk said, “I think it is goodies for the Sergeant. But why not wait for the ship next month?”

  Radius didn’t respond.

  The walk back took much longer than the walk out, due to the need for detouring around the crevasses.

  “Hey Radius, let’s stop here. I’ll run and get a wheelbarrow.”

  “Ok,” said Radius. By Radius’ calculation, the utility of expending energy to walk all the way to the Crane Farm to return with the wheelbarrow made no sense. However, if Dirk, with his lower per watt energy cost wanted to do it, he had no objection.

  Once at the Crane Farm they loaded the diplo pouch onto a stripped down Crane for the trip into the City. Before Dirk arrived Radius made all deliveries to the City using the wheelbarrow. However, the delayed onset muscle soreness in Dirk’s arms and shoulders the day after his first delivery hike to the City motivated Dirk to develop a better process.

  That afternoon, while Radius was working in the Control Tower, Dirk had “modified” a Crane to suit his purposes. By removing the rocket engines and control systems he was left with only the chassis and wheels. The Cranes were designed for on ground movement after landing. Although it still weighed more than the wheelbarrow, pushing the stripped down Crane was much easier on the hands, shoulders and back than holding up the wheelbarrow for the entire hike to the City.

  Radius had not been pleased. “Dirk, those are Company property. Did you get prior authorization to modify it? Were proper procedures followed?”

  Radius’ question infuriated Dirk. “It’s too late now,” he snapped rudely, and had walked home.

  They hadn’t discussed it since, and Radius continued to use the wheelbarrow while Dirk, when it was his turn, pushed the stripped down Crane.